For Those Whose Adolescence Passed During Gilad Shalit’s Captivity, a Game-Changer
I was in high school, spending the summer at a Jewish summer camp in New York, when Gilad Shalit was captured. For every generation of Americans, there is a conflict that defines the image of Israel that is most vivid to them. For some, it was the War of Independence, for others it was the capturing of the Sinai, the return of the Sinai or the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. For those not much older than myself and the writers whose reflections are presented below, it was the Second Intifada. For us, it looked like it would always be the capture of Gilad Shalit. But it looks like we may soon be able to replace that image with his release.
Those are my brief thoughts on the apparently impending release of Shalit. Below, we present the thoughts of five more New Voices Magazine writers.
—David A.M. Wilensky, Editor of New Voices Magazine
Prisoner Exchange Necessary to Protect The Future
By Kelly Seeger
“I don’t know if the future would have allowed us to get a better deal—or any deal for that matter,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday, regarding the return of Gilad Shalit. After 1,934 days of being held prisoner by Hamas, Gilad Shalit is expected to return home within days. In exchange, the Israeli government has agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
While the friends and family of Shalit cry in excitement at their tent outside of Netanyahu’s house, there is another group of Israelis who are also expressing extreme reactions to this deal: the friends and families of victims of terrorist attacks. On the surface, any sane person would express joy for the return of Staff Sergeant Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2006. However, there are extensive potential threats that are posed by the exchange.
Netanyahu emphasized the “window of opportunity” this exchange presented; we must consider its timing. An agreement to release Gilad Shalit has been in the works for the past 1,934 days, every single day that he has been in captivity. In this same time, the Israeli Defense Force has extensively changed its strategy to protect Israel.
The past 10 months have been chock-full of turmoil in the Middle East. In such a time of continuing uncertainty and distress in the Middle East, Israel needed to take action on this matter before time was up.
We cannot know every plan of Hamas or other terrorist organizations. Conversely, we can only know the state of Israel’s plans and its policy to its soldiers. And right now, the Israeli government is bound to its policy to save all IDF soldiers, dead or alive. This exchange is going to shape the mindsets of past, present and future IDF soldiers. Specifically, this exchange is going to give confidence to the current and future IDF that the government is going to stay loyal to them. Beginning at 18 years of age Israeli citizens give their life to fight for the IDF, obligating Israel to favor them in return.
Israel needs to verify to the families of victims that the IDF is doing everything possible to prevent acts of terrorism. It cannot change the past to save their loved ones; rather, the IDF can only seek to protect the present conditions in Israel. Ultimately, this exchange is necessary for Israel right now. While this opens up more anxiety about the future of terrorism, Israel can only act in the present. Only time will tell whether or not the IDF’s buildup since 2006 is enough to sustain the defense of an additional 1,027 Hamas prisoners. However, this exchange should provide confidence that the IDF and the Israeli government is doing everything possible to protect itself and its people and will continue to do so into the future.
Kelly Seeger is a senior at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. studying government and Arabic. She is a New Voices Magazine National Correspondent.
Without Shalit, Hamas Will Be Nothing
By Max Elstein Keisler
The cost is high, maybe too high, but the psychological benefit is huge. While Gilad is imprisoned, those within Hamas are the brutal thugs torturing our innocent family—they have power over us. I remember that video they put out of an eldery Gilad languishing in prison. It was a cruel, manipulative move and it hurt more than it should have. For better or worse, we care about Gilad Shalit—more than we care about the Fogels, more than we care about Yonatan and Asher Palmer. And for years, that’s been the most powerful weapon Hamas has. When Gilad is free, who is Hamas? Bargain bin Islamists ruling (badly) over a trash heap nobody wants. They’re like a rabid dog. The dog can bark and bite, but you can put a dog down.
Max Elstein Keisler is a third-year journalism major at Harvard Extension School and a regular blogger and contributor to New Voices Magazine.
The Inevitable Math of The Prisoners Exchanged for Shalit
By Zach C. Cohen
Gilad Shalit’s return to Israel is a victory for peace. It is the unfortunate consequence of war that innocent people must be put in harm’s way while politicians bicker over minutaie. But, God willing, Shalit and and his family will soon be in each other’s arms.
But the fact that Shalit’s life is being secured for the return of more than 1,000 Palestinian lives is a shame. Every single human life is precious. That cannot be denied. But not everybody seems to think so. When negotiators decided that Shalit’s life is worth that many Palestinians, the math suddenly became vicously inevitable. As soon as that trade is made, a Palestinian will be deemed less valuable than an Israeli.
This is not the first time this has happened. In most, if not all hostage negotiations, many more Palestinians have been surrendered to gurantee life for an Israeli. A single Jew has been used to puchase the freedom of multiple Arabs.
It’s hard to ignore this travesty, that one human’s life can be worth 1,000 times that of another.
With Shalit’s release, the family can rest easy—and peace appears just a bit more likely. But the inequality evident in the very action that ushers in peace also hints at a more ominous truth about how far we’ve yet to go.
Zach C. Cohen is a sophomore at American University in Washington, D.C. He is a New Voices Magazine National Correspondent.
Shalit’s Release Points to Hamas’ Weakness, Not its Strength
By Gedalyah Reback
The prisoner swap will likely provide a halting climax to the power of Hamas among Palestinians. Without this tremendous piece of collateral, Hamas will have to prove itself a worthy alternative to the internationally popular Fatah movement.
But a few other developments also probably forced Hamas to be more accommodating. Suddenly, there is less pressure on Israel to let up on the blockade of the Gaza Strip. More practically, Hamas’ patron Syria is experiencing more instability than it has seen in the last 40 years. But most importantly, the fact that Fatah has gone so far in the international arena over the last year has stunned Hamas. The pen is now mightier than the sword. The prisoner swap might close a period where violence was the dominant form of expression for Palestinians.
Hamas paid a tremendously heavy price for Gilad Shalit. While the practice of taking hostages for prisoner exchanges is nothing new, the political pressure the group faced was unique. Running its own, de-facto country, Hamas led Gazans into two brutal wars with Israel where about 2,000 Gazans lost their lives. Hezbollah has faced similar criticism in Lebanon for starting a war it never intended to win and had every indication would be a disaster.
Hamas could not rehabilitate its international image as so long as they held Shalit the way they did. Hamas violated numerous standards of international law, particularly refusing to allow the soldier regular access to the International Red Cross. This probably even held back Gaza’s ability to recover from the devastating wars with Israel—it was a PR nightmare.
The organization now has a future where it will be difficult to continue to argue armed struggle is the best weapon against Israel. Fatah has shown its political strategies to be extremely effective. This trade comes out of Hamas’ weakness, not its strength.
Gedalyah Reback is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Israel. He is a regular New Voices Magazine blogger.
A Yellow Ribbon and Limitless Hope
By Gabi P. Remz
I have worn a yellow ribbon around my right wrist for almost exactly a year. I received it from a woman in a tent, somber yet gracious in her sorrow. I wasn’t sure what to say. What do you say to someone who lives with the crushing weight of uncertainty? What do you say to someone who can live only on the crutch of hope?
I told her that I prayed for her son and wished her family much strength until Gilad’s return. “Todah rabah,” “Thank you,” she replied kindly and quietly. Aviva Shalit and her family had probably heard that thousands of times since they had set up their tent outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem, but even with all those prayers and supports, her son remained in the terrifying darkness of captivity.
The ribbon Aviva Shalit gave me was a common site in Israel, tied around wrists and backpacks, rear-view mirrors and fences. It sent a message to anyone who could see it, saying, “Gilad, we stand with you.” The ribbon was such a simple gesture, but it reminded me everyday of the freedom I had, the freedom that was taken from Gilad Shalit five years ago. It reminded me that my wish for that Aviva had not come true.
So when I found out today that, finally, after five excruciatingly long years, that a deal had been reached to bring Aviva’s son home from Gaza or wherever Hamas may have been hiding him, my heart pounded and my eyes welled up, because I remembered Aviva. I remembered a woman who represented a nation, constantly harrowed by war, but whose hope, whose tikvah, as is the name of Israel’s national anthem, would not, could not, fade.
I do not know if Aviva really believed her son would be home any time soon when I talked to her that day. I can only imagine how hard it would be to retain hope. The public had seen only a handful of letters and one video, presumably scripted entirely by Hamas, and there had been no sign of life for the past few years. Still, the mantra, “Gilad Adyayin Chai,” “Gilad Still Lives,” held a significant role the Israeli public, as it was represented with every yellow ribbon and every flag with Gilad’s image and the phrase. The thought of him was everywhere, but Gilad himself was still missing.
Of course, we must not forget that Gilad, at least for the time being, remains in captivity. Additionally, the reported price to get him back is more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Though Netanyahu has said it is a matter of days before Gilad is back on Israeli soil, I need to see it to believe it. I need to see Gilad hug his mom. I need to see that sorrow, the unimaginable pain the Shalit family has suffered for the past five years, be lifted from their faces and their souls. If and when that happens, I, along with so many others, will cry. I will say finally with full certainty, “Gilad Adayin Chai,” Gilad still lives.
Gabi P. Remz is a freshman at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He is a New Voices Magazine National Correspondent.
